Mary's mission Nov 26, 2012

Barev im sireli family!!

It sounds like Thanksgiving was wonderful! (Despite the flu bug-it's also going around here-hopefully I'll stay far from it :)) Even better that you were all together!  You all look so great in the pictures!

Our Thanksgiving was a hit! We all did some part to prepare for it and the senior couple took care of the turkey (hard to come by here in Armenia...) and the home made rootbeer (mmmm).  It was wonderful to be together!  After eating we watched 17 Miracles together.  Just so great! The one picture of all of us missionaries is from Thanksgiving-getting ready to eat.

The baptism was really good! We had a lot of support from the branch members, we had some other investigators come, and the spirit was really strong the whole time.  The man in the picture with us and Anna is Sergey-he is a new convert and is AMAZING!

 We were talking with him the other day and he told us he doesn't want to find work, because he just wants to use all his time to help the church.  He is constantly with the missionaries and just loves it! He also was telling one of our investigators about his family and after he had told about his two children and grandchildren, he said "And I have some other children too....Sister Beal, Sister Broadbent, Elder Chojnacki, Elder Zachary..."  And he continued to list more missionaries.  I wish you could all meet this man! He is truly stalwart and has such a strong testimony! It was really neat, after the baptism, Anna was talking with one of our other investigators, who asked what she could do to prepare for baptism, and Anna just started talking about living it and how this message will change her life (the other investigator's).  Way cool! I love that! That's what the gospel is about right?  Changing lives so we can become God's people.  It's like Christ taught in the New Testament, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.  And we all have a need for the Savior-we all are "sick" in some way or another, and only Christ can heal us.

Sunday we had a fun experience, one of our investigators orginally started learning in a different city and she's had a hard time coming to church here, so one of the missionaries that had been teaching her asked us to just go and pick her up, without letting her know that we were coming.  Her relative was also with her (she's a member and had talked with the elders about this plan).  Anyway, so we show up, they had just barely waken up, and for the next 5 minutes they tried to decide whether or not to come.  After we said there was a taxi waiting, they jumped into action and agreed to come.  For the next 20 minutes they ran around getting ready and we helped to dress the kids.  In the end they came! And our members at church were really good at helping them be more involved.  It was a MIRACLE! It's times like that, when I think that sometimes we all need that push, that someone to show up at our door when we are not expecting it, that will push us into action.  I don't know what'll happen with this investigator, but if nothing else, she's had another opportunity to accept the gospel.  I hope we choose to act on those pushes we are given-I would hate to look back and regret not acting on those promptings that were given to help us draw nearer to the Lord.  He is truly waiting for us.

I love you family! Շատ եմ սիրում ձեզ

Մեծ սիրով (lots of love)

Քուր Բրադբենթ (Sister Broadbent)

Հույսով եմ որ շաբաթդ լավ կացնի (not sure what this one says, something about shabat which I would guess means sabbath